A SET THAT NEVER WAS: 1971 ALL-STAR TICKET SET: GLENN BECKERT

The next card from my custom "card set that never was", a dedicated 1971 All-Star game commemorative set, if that of the National League's starting second baseman Glenn Beckert of the Chicago Cubs:

Though only in the Big Leagues for eleven seasons, Beckert had a very nice career, getting four All-Star nods, a Gold Glove, and giving the Cubs a solid second baseman alongside guys like Ron Santo, Billy Williams and Ernie Banks.

The 1971 season was perhaps the best in Beckert's career, as he would go on to hit a career-high .342 while collecting 181 hits, with 80 runs scored and 42 runs batted in.

Between 1966 and 1971 he never hit below .280, and in 1968 he led the National league with 98 runs scored during the "year of the pitcher."

By the time he retired after the 1975 season, he finished with a very nice .283 batting average, with 1473 hits over 5208 at-bats and 1320 games.

1972 ALL-STAR SUB-SET: GLENN BECKERT

Next up in my new thread celebrating the greatest All-Star game of the 1970's, if not ever, is my 1972 All-Star card for the National League's starting second baseman for the 1971 Midsummer Classic, Glenn Beckert of the Chicago Cubs:

 

Though only in the Big Leagues for eleven seasons, Beckert had a very nice career, getting four All-Star nods, a Gold Glove, and giving the Cubs a solid second baseman alongside guys like Ron Santo, Billy Williams and Ernie Banks.

The 1971 season was perhaps the best in Beckert's career, as he would go on to hit a career-high .342 while collecting 181 hits, with 80 runs scored and 42 runs batted in.

Between 1966 and 1971 he never hit below .280, and in 1968 he led the National league with 98 runs scored during the "year of the pitcher."

By the time he retired after the 1975 season, he finished with a very nice .283 batting average, with 1473 hits over 5208 at-bats and 1320 games.

RANDOM QUICKIE: THE TRADE THAT AIRBRUSHING FORGOT

For years I have always wondered why, at the zenith of Topps airbrushing, they didn't seem to bother in 1974 with two players who were traded for each other: Glenn Beckert (#241) and Jerry Morales (#258).

Does anyone know why?

Beckert was traded to the Padres from the Cubs along with Bobby Fenwick on November 7th of 1973 for Morales, so I figured it was early enough to try and do an airbrush job on the two. However, there they are, showing their new, correct, teams but still in their "old" uniforms. Odd.

The mid-70's were such an era of airbrushing (both good and bad) that I'm really stumped. It also does bring up the question: why didn't Topps spare themselves all the airbrushing disasters and just do what they did here? Pretty easy to figure out that a player was traded in the off-season and the only images available are with the previous team. Right?

Anyway, one of those childhood questions that lingers to this day…

Beckert in San Diego...ummm make that Washington D.C., or Chicago?!

Morales sporting an oddly San Diego-like Cubs uniform (??)

THE MISSING ALL STAR CARDS: 1972 TOPPS: NATIONAL LEAGUE

Today we have the National League all stars for the 1972 Topps set, as voted by the fans for the '71 game in Detroit. That is, if Topps would have gone ahead and designated all stars as they did later in the decade.
For the N.L. players, I gave a green bar across the bottom, as opposed to the red bar I gave the A.L. players (posted yesterday).
While the bulk of the N.L. was represented  by all star stalwarts like Aaron, Mays and Bench, we do have a couple of players who were starters for only a single all star game: Dock Ellis and Buddy Harrelson.
Of course we all know Ellis was the pitcher who gave up Reggie Jackson's mammoth blast in the bottom of the Third Inning, taking the loss as the American League won their first Mis-Summer Classic since 1962, 6-4.

THE MISSING ALL-STAR CARDS: 1971 TOPPS: NATIONAL LEAGUE

Today we have the 1971 Topps National League all stars "that never were".

For the N.L. players who were elected starters in 1970, I used a yellow border and star to designate "all star" status, as opposed to the red I used on the A.L. guys.

A couple of items of note: Rich (Dick) Allen is shown on his card as an outfielder even though he was voted in as the starting 1st Baseman. Also, as I profiled before: this is the first Topps baseball card showing a player with a mustache. Ever. Incredible after 20 years of producing cards at that time.

For Tom Seaver this would have been his only all star card until 1982, when he was on Cincinnati. Pretty amazing when you think about it. For all his domination in the 1970's, it was guys like Dock Ellis, Randy Jones, Andy Messersmith and Jerry Reuss that got all star starts over him.

Chicago was well represented with their middle infielders: Glenn Beckert and Don Kessinger. Of course, this was before the "Big Red Machine" dominated all star voting pretty much the rest of the decade.

Rico Carty was voted in for the 1970 game due to his white-hot hitting, ending the season as the N.L. batting champ with a super .366 batting average to go along with 25 homers and 101 R.B.I.'s.

Tomorrow I'll have the A.L. starting nine depicted on the 1972 Topps set, followed by the N.L. team on Thursday.